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Unfair Playing Field: Orlando City’s Uphill Battle

Published

11 years ago

on

There has been much ballyhoo written about — and by — Orlando City supporters, bloggers, and commentators relating to the “unfair” treatment that the Lions seem to be experiencing on the pitch. The postmortem pieces written to cool the heads of angry fans who aren’t used to losing have ranged from the tough love, “get used to it, we’re in MLS now,” to the gentler, “being a supporter means taking the winning with the losing.”

I get it. It's statistically impossible to always win. Look at Manchester United — a team that managed to live at the top of the tables for so long and seemed unbeatable, until Sir Alex retired. And then Man U fans learned the tough way what losing feels like (and all other EPL fans rejoiced in the Red Devils eating crow).

I have watched — with no exaggeration — thousands of hours of football in my lifetime. Growing up in Newcastle, every weekend's match was either watched in person or on the telly. I live this sport. I know what a foul looks like, I can see a red card call a mile away, and I can explain the offside rule to even the most uninitiated (it's a party trick).

So, with this in mind, I am throwing this out here: what if our losses aren't just sour grapes, but instead, Orlando City is actually being treated unfairly on the pitch?

I'm the first to admit when we play badly and, when a call goes against us, justifiably, I take it on the chin. But let's look at statistics from weeks 1-4 to see how our bad calls stack up and why (Spoiler Alert: we're getting screwed).

Week 1 – Orlando City vs. New York City FC

No Lions fan is going to quickly forget Alan Kelly’s name. He’s the unqualified pleb who was inexplicably assigned our inaugural match in order to see if he could “play ref.” No one probably needs a reminder, but we drew 1-1 in that match after several shockingly bad calls, including three yellows for “simulation” and a questionable red card for Aurélien Collin (if it had been anyone other than David Villa, it would have been a yellow).

The simulation calls received a lot of discussion after the match and painted our players in a bad light with comments like, "is Orlando just a bunch of divers?" Consider this: In Week 1, across 10 games, only three yellow cards were issued for simulation and 100% of those were against Orlando City. Week 2 saw only one yellow against Vancouver Whitecaps' Octavio Rivero across eight matches, and Week 3 was the same, with one yellow for diving against Houston's Giles Barnes out of eight games played. Week 4, thus far (as of the time of publication Sunday's matches have still yet to be played) have zero calls for simulation.

For those who like math, that's five yellows for simulation, over 34 games played, and 60% of those cards have been shown against our purple-clad lads.

Week 2 – Houston Dynamo vs. Orlando City

Watching this away game on TV was hard. No one heard me screaming at the set when Kaká was continuously brought down by deliberate and dangerous challenges, which went un-reprimanded by Chris Penso and his officiating team.

Comparing Collin’s send-off from Week 1 when David Villa went down, under the same reasoning, Kaká’s takedown by Garrido, which didn’t even merit a yellow, shows a massive inconsistency with how our players are treated. Molino’s four fouls suffered, along with Darwin Ceren’s hacking down by Ricardo Clark, were all obvious moments during the game where our boys were blatantly playing against 11 men and three officials.

However, the most egregious uncalled challenge of the night, which was discussed for days afterwards, was the horse-collar-into-the-net take-down of Pedro Ribeiro by Tyler Deric. It was only by luck and Ribeiro keeping his balance, that he didn’t face-plant into the goalpost and knock himself out.

No question, Deric should have been off. Regardless of the OG which negated the clear penalty kick that should have been given, the fact that Deric was never flagged for that ridiculous defending (called "dangerous play" in the rule book) can't help but make City fans question the fairness of the playing field.

We may have won 1-0 but it's a hollow victory when you go back and re-watch all of the opportunities which were stolen from us through bad calls.

Week 3 – Orlando City vs. Vancouver Whitecaps

This one still smarts, doesn't it? The fact that four minutes of extra time in the 90th suddenly became six, which allowed for the Whitecaps to score — and win — just hurts. The fact that Octavio Rivero was awarded "Goal of the Week" for that insult makes it seem like the whole league just wants to eff with us.

Had it been a draw, I would have still walked out of the Citrus Bowl cursing and blinding the yet-again, appalling referee decisions. All of us who have eyeballs saw the insane foul by Kekuta Manneh against Collin, all of us — except the refs (who belong on OBT). So much so, that when the MLS disciplinary committee met this week, they suspended Manneh one game for “serious foul play that endangered the safety of an opponent.”

We were also all watching when Diego Rodriguez, who was marking Collin for a corner, came over and "man-handled" him, which sent Collin to the ground in a heap. The ref brushed it off, but the disciplinary committee saw it as much more severe and gave Rodriguez a two-match ban and a fine.

Week 4 – Montreal Impact vs. Orlando City

The injustices continued in last night’s game when a foul was called on Sean St. Ledger for an unintentional handball during a corner kick, resulting in a PK which put the Impact up 1-0. In the majority of instances an unintentional handball is a foul that is claimed but never called. St. Ledger did not intentionally place his hands there and reach out to touch the ball, as the foul requires, rather it was merely a case that his hand was in the wrong place when the ball made contact with him.

The other incident of questionable refeering, and Kaká was certainly not pleased about it, was getting the FT whistle called whilst we were playing in Montreal's 18-yard box. It is virtually an unwritten rule that this shouldn't happen and after playing Vancouver last week where ET, appeared infinitely flexible (to cater to their attacking play), it seems unfair to Orlando that the whistle should be blown at that inopportune time when its in their favor, and we were certainly in the position of taking the lead.

These incidents aren't, individually, enough for us to be paranoid about how we are being treated as the NKOTB. However, viewed in the "totality of the circumstances" (busting out some legal jargon), there is enough here to warrant a legitimate discussion about why we are getting short shrift.

So, if you have been feeling really miserable about our start to the season, and the "suck it up" pep talk just isn't working for you, you're not alone. We should be upset about the bad calls, the missed calls and the late calls. We should be annoyed that our players are getting beat down and the other side is getting away with it. We should be yelling and screaming and cursing the refs.

To my mind, it's totally justified. However, the optimist in me thinks that maybe we are just getting hazed and I hope that our initiation is almost over.

Polling Closed

PlayerVotes
Heck yeah, we are getting screwed497
Orlando is being treated the same as all the other MLS teams177
Orlando City is getting what they deserve27

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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. San Jose Earthquakes: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More

Orlando City restarts its 2026 MLS campaign late tonight out west at San Jose.

Published

4 days ago

on

July 22, 2026

By

Image of Braian Ojeda taking a shot in a friendly against FC Dallas.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Justin Glatt

Welcome to your match thread for a late night midweek matchup tonight between Orlando City (4-9-2, 14 points) and the San Jose Earthquakes (10-3-2, 32 points) at PayPal Park (10:30 p.m., Apple TV). This is the only scheduled meeting between the teams in 2026 and the first time the teams have met since 2024.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of tonight’s match.

History

Orlando City is 3-1-3 in the previous seven MLS meetings with the Quakes since the club joined Major League Soccer in 2015. The Lions got their only away win in the series in the last meeting and enter tonight 1-1-2 on the road against San Jose.

The teams last met on May 18, 2024, with Jack Lynn coming off the bench to score the game’s only goal. Lynn’s strike in the 89th minute broke the scoreless deadlock and lifted the Lions to a 1-0 victory.

The teams met in Orlando most recently way back on June 22, 2021, with the Lions beating the Quakes down, 5-0. Orlando got things started with an early penalty kick goal by Nani, followed by braces from Benji Michel and Daryl Dike to easily put the game away. The lasting memory from the game is Michel’s celebratory dance wearing a cowboy hat that came out of the stands.

Prior to that Orlando City romp, the last time the teams met was on Aug. 31, 2019 when the Lions got freight trained 3-0 at Avaya Stadium, giving the Quakes their first win in the series. San Jose’s offense came via a Chris Wondolowski brace and an early opening goal by Magnus Eriksson. Orlando looked flat and weary out of the gate.

The Lions were victorious in Exploria Stadium in the 2018 meeting on April 21, a 3-2 Orlando win. It was the first win in the series for either side after three straight draws. Chris Mueller, Sacha Kljestan, and Dom Dwyer gave the Lions a 3-0 lead before Florian Jungwirth pulled two back in the game’s late stages.

The Lions led all of the first three matches in the second half only to see San Jose pull level, with two of those tying goals coming late. In the 2017 meeting, Carlos Rivas finally broke the scoreless tie and gave Orlando City the lead in the 81st minute, but Wondolowski spoiled the Lions’ night with an equalizer two minutes later as the teams drew at Avaya Stadium, 1-1.

In 2016, the Lions were gut-punched in the 94th minute in an emotional match that ended in a 2-2 draw. It was the first home match following the Pulse nightclub tragedy and what appeared to be a storybook ending to a cathartic win turned sour on a last-gasp equalizer by Shea Salinas. Seb Hines — now the Orlando Pride’s head coach — opened the scoring for Orlando, only to see Chad Barrett tie it up. Julio Baptista restored the lead in stoppage time, but Salinas ruined everything.

The two teams also drew in the first meeting, a 1-1 affair at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, with the Lions down to 10 men after Brek Shea was sent off in the first half. Kaká and Wondolowski each scored from the penalty spot four minutes apart in that initial meeting.

Overview

The teams meet tonight to get their post-World Cup portion of the season started. Orlando City has been terrible on the road all season long, keeping only one MLS opponent under two goals all year away from home and allowing five goals twice (at New York City FC and Nashville) and six goals twice (at LAFC and in the team’s most recent match away at FC Cincinnati just before the break).

Orlando City is a putrid 1-6-1 on the road this season, and now the Lions must face the Western Conference co-leaders tonight before coming home to face Supporters’ Shield-leading Nashville SC at home on Saturday. They’ll have to play at least tonight’s game without Martin Ojeda, who is out with a thigh injury sustained some time between his first-half goal a week ago in a friendly against FC Dallas and the time the availability report dropped on Tuesday.

But it isn’t all bad news for the Lions, who should have both Antoine Griezmann and Dike in the lineup. Griezmann was the club’s highly prized and widely publicized summer Designated Player signing, while Dike’s return to Orlando came together more recently, following his departure from West Bromwich Albion. They’ll help the club’s offense, but the attack hasn’t been the issue in 2026 — it’s been the historically porous defense, which is on pace to shatter the MLS record for goals conceded.

Meanwhile, San Jose is one of the first half of the season’s biggest surprises, as the Quakes have been outstanding in 2026. Scoring 34 goals while conceding just 15, San Jose is among the league leaders in goals scored (tied for third), goals conceded (third), and goal differential (+19, third).

The Earthquakes are 4-2-1 at home and are coming off a 3-1 road win at Portland in their last game prior to the World Cup break. San Jose boasts Golden Boot challenger Preston Judd, who leads the Quakes with 11 goals, adding two assists in his 15 appearances. Ousseni Bouda has chipped in five goals and three assists. Niko Tsakiris leads the team with seven assists to go along with his two goals, but he’s still recovering from a lower body injury and is not available tonight. However, the arrival of Timo Werner (four goals and five assists in just seven games) has truly elevated Bruce Arena’s Quakes, and he’ll need to be one of the main focal points for the Orlando defense.

To have any shot at taking something from this game, the Lions will need to play better road defense than they have all season. Orlando can score goals, but with Ojeda out, Griezmann will need to adapt quickly, and someone other than the team’s leading scorer will need to find the net.

The Lions will play without Ojeda (thigh), Joran Gerbet (knee), Nolan Miller (knee), Colin Guske (international duty), and Clovis Archage (international duty). In addition, Marco Pasalic may or may not have returned to the team after the World Cup. He was not in training Monday, although interim head coach Martin Perelman said he expected the Croatian back soon. The Earthquakes will be without Nonso Adimabua (lower body), former Lion Earl Edwards Jr. (lower body), DeJuan Jones (lower body), and Tsakiris (you guessed it, lower body…come on, San Jose).

Match Content

Official Lineups:

Orlando City (4-4-2)

Goalkeeper: Maxime Crepeau.

Defenders: Adrian Marin, David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Griffin Dorsey.

Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Braian Ojeda, Eduard Atuesta, Tiago.

Forwards: Justin Ellis, Antoine Griezmann.

Bench: Javier Otero, Bernardo Rhein, Tahir Reid-Brown, Zakaria Taifi, Iago, Wilder Cartagena, Luis Otavio, Harvey Sarajian, Tyrese Spicer

San Jose Earthquakes (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Angus Gunn.

Defenders: Jamar Ricketts, Reid Roberts, Daniel Munie, Benjamin Kikanovic.

Defensive Midfielders: Beau Lerouox, Ronaldo Vieira.

Attacking Midfielders: Timo Werner, Nick Fernandez, Ousseni Bouda.

Forwards: Preston Judd.

Bench: Jonathan Gonzalez, Dave Romney, Paul Marie, Jack Skahan, Jack Jasinski, Ian Harkes, Francesco Montali, Max Floriani, Darius Johnson.

Referees

REF: Elijio Arreguin.
AR1: Adam Wienckowski.
AR2: Mike Nickerson.
4TH: Timothy Ford.
VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero.
AVAR: TJ Zablocki.

How to Watch

Match Time: 10:30 p.m.

Venue: PayPal Park — San Jose, CA.

TV/Live Stream: Apple TV.

Radio: AM 810 FOX Sports Radio Orlando (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish), Nossa Rádio 1160 AM-WRLZ (Portuguese).

Social Media: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow us on Bluesky Social at @themaneland.bsky.social or follow Orlando City’s official Twitter (@OrlandoCitySC) or Bluesky (@OrlandoCitySC) feed.

Enjoy the match. Go City!

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Podcasts

PawedCast Episode 542: Tampa Bay Friendly, McGuire Traded, OCB Beats Cincinnati, and More

Lions maul the Rowdies in friendly action, OCB wins on the road, and it’s transfer season.

Published

2 weeks ago

on

July 14, 2026

By

Image of Antoine Griezmann and Ivan Angulo celebrating a goal in a friendly against the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City welcomed I-4 Derby rival Tampa Bay to Inter&Co Stadium for a friendly match on Wednesday and then proceeded to bludgeon the Rowdies with a couple of hammers named Antoine Griezmann and Justin Ellis. The two attackers combined for a goal and four assists in a 6-0 beatdown of the team from the Gulf Coast, with five different Lions scoring and Griffin Dorsey forcing an own goal. We discuss Griezmann’s first minutes with Orlando City, what the team showed in its formation, and how good Justin Ellis’ vision is.

Oh, and it’s also transfer season now. Duncan McGuire is on his way out and Marco Pasalic reportedly will follow soon, while a new left back may be headed from Spain to Orlando.

Following all of that, we discuss Maxime Crepeau being added to the MLS All-Star Team and the announcement that he’ll participate in the 2026 MLS All-Star Skills Challenge.

Our mailbagbox asked us about which World Cup semifinalist players we’d want to join Orlando this season (if we could only pick one), and more. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC, or hitting us up on Bluesky Social with that same hashtag.

After the mailbagbox, we dive into OCB’s 2-1 road win at FC Cincinnati 2. It wasn’t the prettiest game by the Young Lions, but they managed to do enough to earn three points on the road, where they’ll stay to face Chattanooga on Saturday. We briefly preview that game.

Finally, Orlando City will be in Dallas Wednesday for the second of two friendlies leading up to the restart of the MLS season. It’s unlikely we’ll get a lot of details about that one, but we’ll see what happens. Maybe the FC Dallas folks will help us out.

Be sure to rate and review our show wherever you get your podcasts. Remember, we’ll read any five-star reviews we get on Apple Podcasts on the next show.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how No. 542 went down:

0:15 – Orlando City crushed the Rowdies, the transfer season is in full swing, plus: hey now, Crepeau’s an all-star.

28:50 – The mailbagbox is always good for a hypothetical scenario.

36:54 – The Young Lions slipped past Cincy and head to Chattanooga, while the senior Lions head to Dallas.

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Podcasts

SkoPurp Soccer Episode 119: International Break, USWNT, Louisville Preview, and More

The Pride return from a long international break looking to get their first-ever road win against Racing Louisville.

Published

3 months ago

on

April 22, 2026

By

Image of Haley McCutcheon scoring the opening goal in Orlando's home playoff win over Seattle.
Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

It feels like months since the Orlando Pride last took the field, but the calendar says otherwise. If you believe calendars, it’s only been a little less than three weeks, but time moves strangely in the post-pandemic apocalyptic world.

Anyway, we don’t have a match to recap, so we touched on a couple of Pride players putting the ball in the net during the international break and chat a bit about the United States Women’s National Team’s three-game friendly series against Japan. Emma Hayes used a lot of players, and the team looked solid for two of the three matches, but the rotated middle game seemed a bit disjointed. Hayes has greatly expanded the player pool and will have plenty of options when the World Cup approaches.

Our mailbagbox had questions about a potential change in the NWSL schedule, as the league explores adopting the fall-to-spring slate, and opposition own goals. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We’d also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we’ll find them easily and read them on the show.

After the mailbagbox, we turned our attention toward Friday’s late afternoon tussle with Racing Louisville in Kentucky. The Pride have never won on the road against Louisville, and it’s about high time they did. This match begins a congested push to the June World Cup break, and although Friday’s hosts aren’t high in the table, the Pride must be at their best to get a road result in this fixture. We look back at the series history, compare the two sides, provide our key matchups in the game, and make our final score predictions.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how Episode 119 went down:

0:15 – We open the show with a little banter about the Pride in the international break and the USWNT’s series vs. Japan.

9:03 – The mailbagbox features questions via both eletronic mail and social media. We welcome all modes of delivery.

19:59 – The Pride travel to Louisville to face Racing. They’ve never won in Kentucky, but we inform them how to do so.

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